Who is our Moses?
As I drove home to let my clinically insane dog out of his cage to take a dump, I was listening to the radio. And as I scanned I came across Glenn Beck. I have never listened to his show, but thought what the hell, might as well now. Anyway, he said something interesting, and I am TOTALLY paraphrasing here:
Look, when they were building the pyramids, a lot of slaves got crushed in the rocks. Lots of them. They didn’t stop, they just left the guy in there are brought up more stones. Happens again, and no one did anything. And this happened hundreds of times, and no one said anything. And then Moses came and said “Let my people go” and led them out of Egypt. Because no one else had taken any interest, and Moses came and promised horrible things from the Power on High, and delivered. And the slaves became Freemen and moved on. This message, and the preceeding 1/2 hour of our show brought to you by the people who know that Gold is a commodity we need in times like this…..
First off, the Gold part. I agree. Just this weekend I dumped all my investments in Gold though to pay for the healthcare of XBlackheart, Dreadbeard (Claymore), PastyEunuch (Brown Neck Gaitor), Milbe, Photara (Mrs. Claymore) and myself. It took the form of these beauties:
But, to Beck’s question: Who is our Moses? I hear Paul Ryan’s name being thrown around a lot, and I do genuinely like the guy, but he caved on several money issues in the past, and everyone seems to be ignoring those discrepancies now. So, I throw it out to you, who is that guy? I have my theory, and I will be sharing it in a bit as I defend him from some asshattery from who else but Vote Vets.
Category: Politics
And don’t forget, Carter had the aftermath of a little thing called the Arab Oil Embargo to deal with…..
Hey dumbass; you still haven’t answered the question.
Why don’t you sit down and take another hit, then get up and try answering the fucking question?
As I recall Joe, Democrats ran the house and senate, continued passing those spending bills, and over rode Reagans vetoe to do it….you remember Ted Kennedy getting a veto override to get money for the Big Dig don’t you?
vetoe=veto
Don’t know much about Carter’s economic policies except to say at least they didn’t continue wreaking global havoc 30 years after his presidency.
There you go, AGAIN, saying some stupid shit that leads me to believe that you aren’t as old as you claim. You won’t answer the question I posed to you, instead you go into a textbook diatribe against Reagan, then you answer with “Don’t know much about Carter’s economic policies “. Don’t know? Don’t know???? What the fuck is that?? You would have been in your late 20’s at the time and you don’t know??? Bullshit. You lost your cloak, boy. Go back to your latte swilling dumbass friends and see if you can get your prof to give you a hint at what the hell we’re talking about.
Old Tanker called you out on who was in the majority in congress, I called you out on Carter and you have no fucking clue, except to spit and sputter shit out of a text book.
I’m through with your bullshit.
Joe, Carter started the whole Community Reinvestment Act which is THE major reason for the financial woes we are now in. It was loans going to people who couldn’t pay them back that created a bigger loan market, that made loans cheaper, that made more people get them, that artificially ballooned housing prices….etc… Yes, bankers new it was bad paper but thought they had the backing of Fanny and Freddy. They were given the wink an nod after Clinton expanded CRA even with Franklyn Raines telling them this very thing would happen. Bankers bundled bad paper with good in an effort to offset the risk they were forced to take with looming lawsuits from community organizers at ACORN….look how things turned out for ACORN!
Carter’s economic legacy 30 years on…….
In my twenties (the lost years) I spent a lot of time in the mountains and deserts away from society, didn’t follow politics much. So when I say I don’t know, I mean just that -I don’t know. Unlike you, I don’t know everything.
At long last Joe stumbles upon the truth.
Thank you Trooper and Tanker you saved me some time. I am going to use the Joe excuse for when I don’t know what I am talking about. My twentys…the lost years I spent most of the time fighting grizzly bears and scorpions so I wasn’t too interested in news or politics.
So, Joe, you actually did pull a Moses and wander through the desert? With that said; how can you then jump all over Reagan as the beginning of the end and carry on with your arrogant attitude and have no clue about what was happening before Reagan. You have nothing to compare it to. Life didn’t take the same sabatical that you did between Ford and Reagan. We endured Keynesian economics, pussified foreign policy that made us weaker, not stronger, double digit inflation, interest rates, and unemployment. Not to mention ending our control of the Panama Canal (which the Chicoms now control), gas lines (yes, we had those, post Arab Oil Embargo), higher taxes, that wonderful new term stagflation, disco (don’t get me started), and another new term “the misery index”. All negatives, all on Carter’s watch and most of it could have been dealt with quicker had Carter not gone the Keynes route. Enter Reagan, who actually didn’t blame the previous administration for everything, but set to putting Americans back to work. Did he spend some money? Yes he did, but nothing on the scale of today. Did he cut taxes and control spending? Yep, he sure did, because he knew that if you were going to cut taxes, you had to cut spending, also. A deficit created from cutting taxes is far better than a deficit created from increasing spending, because it means more private sector money is put to work in the private sector, not in Washington. Within his first term, people were getting back to work, interest rates were coming down, businesses were investing again. De-regulation…..Airlines weren’t required by law to service highly unprofitable routes anymore, so the airlines could expand their business where it would do the most good and in the process, hire a few people, also. That’s how you create jobs, not by taxing the crap out of business and punishing those that make the money. JFK (you remember him, you were in school when he was President) even cut taxes, because he knew that in order to create jobs, you first have… Read more »
The economy is a complex adaptive system, with a billion inuts and a billion outputs, not an all-or-nothing proposition as you would have us believe. It’s more complex than, “the government takes all the money” or “the government takes none of the money”. It’s a matter of balance. John Wayne fans forget that to earn his millions even he had to drive on gov’t funded roads, cross gov’t funded bridges, fly to his next movie set under the guidance of the gov’t funded FAA, and take his meds tested and scrutinized by the gov’t funded FDA. Our current system is totally skewed for the benefit of corporations and the top 5%, and in serious need of rebalancing, or redistribution of wealth (which has been going on since the first tax), as you might call it. A complex adaptive system is not a healthy system if most of its “agents” (i.e., citizens)are in dire financial straights. Do I want the gov’t to take al our money? No. Does the system need some serious tweaking to avoid further collapse. You betcha!
Joe just used the phrase, “You betcha.” I’m guessing Sarah Palin is pulling a Jedi mind fuck on his ass right about now.
Sleep well, Joe. Sleep well.
Oh, and I wasn’t born in the “top 5 percent”, but I’m pretty close to that point now. How, you ask? How about the concept of working your ass off for what you want, rather than pissing and moaning about it? Ever tried that little gem?
Yeah, Sparky, 5 days a week. Myself, I’m doing OK, but there are a lot of people who aren’t.
My point exactly, Joe–you do the minimum required and bitch when your Skittle-shitting ponies don’t fall out of the fucking sky for you.
I wish you guys would quit picking on poor Joe. How is he ever going to be persuaded to the value of free market economics and stuff like that if you don’t use the reason God gave you to convince him? It’s like as though you’re all like Ironknight’s blog, “About Face: Discussing both sides of important issues by using all the skills the Infantry gave me”…LOL… (at http://turnandfire.blogspot.com/)
I wish Joe would suck a grenade, but I don’t see that happening either, damn the bad luck.
LOL… (though my amusement does not constitute my approval…)
[…] Ronald Reagan (!?!) for Current Bad Economy You want to know how we got into this mess? Here is a prime example of the ignorance of the types of people who are voting for Obama and the radical Democrats in […]
Debra; If Joe, at 59-60 years old, hasn’t been coaxed away from the darkside by now, with life experiences to back up the fact, then he never will, so I view him as a lost cause as far as showing him that free markets win over bondage and entitlement every time. As Winston Churchill said, and I’m paraphrasing “When you are young and not liberal; you have no heart. When older and not conservative; you have no brain”. I understand that there are people that aren’t doing as well as others and I do my part to help, however, it’s my choice and it’s not forced upon me by an overreaching government. I, also, understand that someone elses poor choices shouldn’t be my burden. I would love to be making 6 figures, however, I didn’t choose a path that will make that happen (unless I win the lottery, but that would require buying a ticket) in my field and because of that, is it the responsibility of those that went out and did more, sacrificed more and took the right courses in college, to give me some of what they worked hard for? Tha fallacy that the left uses in their example of class warfare is the trust fund babies that don’t do anything but are given a lot of money and they are evil. Really? Maybe they should look at their benefactors like Soros, who has no problem spending a lot of his money on political groups, but you never hear about him spending any of it on feeding the hungry, or clothing the poorest children. Instead, he spends his money on useful idiots to tell the rest of us we need to have our money taken away from us to give to the less fortunate. Charity is when you give of your own free will, not when the government is forcing wealth redistribution to make a bunch of do-gooders feel like they accomplished some social manifest destiny. Joe hasn’t figured that out, yet. He, also, hasn’t realized that the most charitable a leftist is ever going to be… Read more »
Well, typically we’ve gone afield from the original topic. In closing, I’ll say people in many developed countries feel just a little charity or responsibility for those less fortunate, sadly lacking here. There is a minimal safety net, esp. with health care. In these countries when someone gets really sick thru no fault of their own, they don’t lose their house and end up on the street. Here, it’s sink or swim, I feel we’re at war with ourselves. The conservative candidates mentioned at the beginning all have a “throw them to the wolves” mentality. I don’t call that civilization in the modern sense of the word. ‘Nuff said..
Joe- You will note that I rarely go after you. So, let me ask you this, is forced charity actually charity? Do you believe the “teach a man to fish” sort of thing? And lastly, do you think that our giving handouts developes an attitude of dependancy which comes to create conflict?
I’ll say people in many developed countries feel just a little charity or responsibility for those less fortunate
And they of course give more money and time to charity per capita than Americans……oh wait, they don’t. This is one of the most assinine things you’ve ever put to print. My brother’s girlfriend recently lost a 4 year battle with breast cancer(for which the mortality rate is lower here than any other country in the world). She had no insurance and yet was taken care of by charitable contributions from drug companies, hospitals, universities and Doctors…..oh yah, while in the middle of all this she bought a house to put a roof over her and her childrens heads too dickhead!
Like usual Joe runs away when he knows he has lost, but does not want to admit it.
TSO,
I though I was outta here, but you dragged me back in, mainly because of the respect I have gained for you thru you thoughtful postings. As a species we evolved in small groups and have loyalty mainly to our immediate clan, and innate fear of strangers. It’s a normal situation, called “kin selection” by anthropologists. The trick is to extend these loyalties to 300 million people in the relatively new concept of the nation-state. Open ended welfare with no strings attached is a road to dependency and not the answer, but throwing people and families to the wolves isn’t either. I think we’re smart enough to help in the short term(charity) and structure incentives to help people to pull themselves up too. The concept of “workfare” has had some success in a few states (Wisconsin?). It’s more expensive initially, but has better long term results. I feel most normal people want to be contributing members of society, but just don’t know how, weren’t taught to contribute, or are too overwhelmed to get started. By most objective or subjective measures of happiness, Scandanavian and northern European countries with extensive safety nets score highest. In fact, in an increasingly complex and interdependent world, I think our every man for himself philosophy (good for opening up the wild west) is showing its age, the most successful countries will be the ones where the population has some kind of safety net. Freeloaders are nothing new in society or in nature (i.e., parasites), but I think we’re smart enough to successfully incentivize being a contributing member of society. Universal health care would be part of this safety net. Sorry if it’s disjointed, written in several short stints between working.
Yeah, and “workfare” has worked SO well in Milwaukee, Joe.
NHSparky,
The devil is in the details…
“I think we’re smart enough to successfully incentivize being a contributing member of society.”
What evidence do you have in support of this? When Clinton tackled welfare dependancy and trimmed it down, the folks went back to work. Using your theory, should the return to work have been at the exact same rate? I would say that cutting the availability of that avenue was the incentive people needed.
Also, you are judging “happiness.” Is that truly your definition of what makes a “good” and “just” country? If one person is perfectly happy to sit in a shit hole provided that the US send over food, is that a good thing then? I would argue that the greatest trait a country or government can have is in contributing innovation and in achieving all that it can from what it has available. I don’t remember the last time i read of a Scandenavian country really doing something on the international level that is akin to what the US does on a regular basis, and thus, I would argue that while they themselves might be “happier” that the US is leagues ahead in terms of aiding in survival and long life.
Frankly, the Scandenavians should be eradicated for loosing Ikea upon the earth. Mark my words, at some point in the future, they will issue an inaudible tone and millions of people will be crushed under the weight of shitty particle board book cases and tv stands around the globe. What do you think killed off the Myans…think about it.
“sadly lacking here” in #71? Joey, you know few, if any people here. But you go with the lib mantra that only the libs have “empathy”, “do more” for people, just are better people, when all the info out there directly contradicts that point of view. It’s not surprising that you “feel” that way, it’s expected by those of us who actually do things for other people. Again, show me empathy in the Constitution. You can’t, so scuttle off to du and Kos, they’ll pat your head and commiserate with you.
Old Trooper, they don’t listen to Bobby Vinton(#22) when they make their protest signs, they probably listen to Inna Godda Davida or other head banger music.
Debra, I don’t know which army you were in, driving WWII jeeps in the late 70’s? We had the M151A1 earlier than that.
TSO,
Well yes, in your comment regarding Clinton, welfare should not be open-ended. Eventually people should have to cut the cord and work, assuming there are jobs, which there were in Clinton’s era, now not so many. My dad was taught to swim when his grandfather threw him in the deep end of the pool. He survived. Similarly, cutting benefits might “incentivize” those who are able to swim, but others would simply drown. I mean some people, whether because of upbringing or whatever, need some extra help. Growing up in some inner city hell hole, do you think you would have necessarily developed a terrific work ethic? Isn’t it possible that “workfare” programs could teach people who weren’t initially taught both the value and rewards of work?
Also, I don’t see why we as a country can’t do all the things we do, and have a happier as a populace. The two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. How about continuing to do what we do, and having a happier people? Oh man, such a complex, wide-ranging topic. But I guess I believe that most, though not all, people, even those in burned out slums, would take the opportunity to be productive citizens if it were presented to them in a manner they could buy into. Complex topic with a million tangents.
PS – I think Scandanavian countries do pretty well condsidering their small populations – all the scandanavian contries combined have less people than some states.
Also, I don’t see why we as a country can’t do all the things we do, and have a happier as a populace
The government works hard to prevent that, after all, how many happy people are there vs. un-happy regarding this last bill congress passed…..it was suposed to make every body “happy”…..
Joe, Joe, Joe. Government doesn’t have the obligation or the “right” to MAKE anyone ANYTHING. The obligation of government is to get the fuck out of OUR way so we can pursue happiness ourselves. What part of that confuses you so?
Well put, Sparky, too bad Joe won’t get that, either. I’d bet the whole thing about personal responsibility is way past his pay grade.
Yeah NHSparky and UpNorth, I know a great place where they have the least restrictive, least intrusive government, one that “gets the f**k outta the way”. You might like it. It’s called Somalia.
Once again, Joe misses the point entirely. Thanks for demonstration of your douchenozzle-ness yet again, Joe. Now go run along while the adults have a conversation, won’t you? You might be an adult biologically speaking, but emotionally and mentally? Well, you keep proving our assertions with each and every time you click the “Submit Comment” button.
Easy, Sparky, Joe’s probably speaking from experience. And actually Joey, Al-Shabaab seems in control of most of Somalia, and they govern in a most strict way. Kinda like, their way or the highway. Or, as the Queen said, “off with her head”. I’m sure you’ll fit right in there, so don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.
I’m guessing that Joe is not, uh, a fan of Ayn Rand. I also don’t think he has much understanding of human nature.
UpNorth, yes, the US Army did in fact still utilize WWII Army jeeps in Germany in the late 70’s. I was pretty shocked myself when I first got there, having just served in the MP company at Ft. Sam Houston, TX, and found the MPs in Frankfurt doing their routine patrol on the city streets of Frankfurt, Germany, in the dead of winter, in WWII Army jeeps. I did not like it at all (okay, I was wuss).
I would think the continued usage of WWII Army jeeps by the US Army in Germany as late as the 1970’s is common knowledge among those who served in the Army in Germany during that time frame. Apparently the availibility of modern vehicles had nothing to do with it.
In fact, it was in MP school in 1976 that I was taught how to drive a stick shift on an Army jeep – it was part of our training – so that we would be able to drive the jeeps at our duty stations, if necessary (and it was). And our radio training in MP school was on those big old radios they had on the jeeps (forget what they’re called) and they were left-overs from WWII as well. We had to know how to put them on the jeep, set them up, how they worked, all that. And yes, those were the radios we used in the jeeps in Frankfurt, goo (as well as modern police radios). We did also have regular sedans, of course. We used the jeeps sometimes for routine patrol in the city and also took them out to the field for field training exercises and on Reforger.
Sorry about the typos.
I was there in 66-68, and never saw anything other than an M151 or M151A1. MOF, when I arrived in Frankfurt, I only saw the sedans. We had both versions of the 151, and did our patrols in jeeps. Other than garrison cities, where we used the 793’s sedans.
Like I said, never saw a WWII jeep. Sure you aren’t confusing the 151 with a WWII jeep?
Debra:
Re: #88:
Were those Jeeps of the M-38 types, or were they M-151 models? I am involved in a collection of M-38 models and am curious when the active military last used them. During my period of service, (1960-’64), the Army transitioned from the M-38 to the M-151, at least within the 101st Airborne Division.
Without knowing, I would suspect that the “Jeeps” that you saw in Germany were most likely M-151’s. One easy identifier is that the M-38 had 3 speed forward transmissions while the M-151 had 4 speed trannies. You are the first that I have read that mentions “Jeeps” in more recent times than my service. Thanks.
Nuf Sed
Further to my above: While the M-38’s were called “Jeep” and manufactured by Willys Corp., the M-151 was a “Mutt” (Military Utility Tactical Transport), and manufactured by Ford.
Nuf Sed
Debra,
You are correct ma’am, I am not a fan of Ayn Rand, from what I know of her, nor her wet dream, John Wayne. She was probably overcompensating for her time in the Soviet Union, admittedly a hell hole when she was there. Her views kind of remind me of the tautological views of the religious lunatics over a “C” street – we’re powerful and successful because we deserve to be powerful and successful because we’re god’s chosen ones, and the normal rules of civil society don’t apply to us because, well, we’re so successful.
What I am a fan of as far as explaining human behavior is evolutionary psychology and game theory. Still in its infancy, but it has a lot of promise…..
Damn, Joe. You don’t like Jews? I didn’t see that one coming.
In addition to what F.O. said, another identifier is the “jeep” had vertical bars in the grill, the “Mutt” had horizontal bars.
Joey, how can one not overcompensate for even a day spent in the Soviet Union, East Germany or any of the other “worker’s paradises”? I guess I go along with a whole lot of people here, you’re a fool, and apparently a bigot.
Joe, I don’t think you know too much about Ayn Rand. Maybe you should read up a little before you begin to criticize…and not wikipedia. I have read John Rawls and I feel that I can criticize his work on the basis that I know it.
BTW Maybe I read what you wrote wrong, but Ayn Rand was an atheist.
I always thought they were WW II jeeps and I thought that’s what I heard them referred to as, but I don’t actually know the first thing about them. I avoided them at all costs. 🙂 I can remember I kept asking the older guys why we had to do patrol in these jeeps; that it didn’t make any sense to me. What would we do if we had an actual emergency and needed to get somewhere fast? I don’t have recollection of them being 3-speeds, but couldn’t say for sure. Usually my partner drove as the guys didn’t trust my driving at that age (19 – I eventually got better though). Most of the guys seemed to think they were excellent vehicles, as I recall, and a lot of them preferred doing their patrol in the jeeps as opposed to the sedans. I can remember them telling me they were relics of WW II, however, I believe they often told me tall tales anyway and I usually believed almost everything they told me at when I was that young. They also used to frighten me with stories of wild boars in the woods at night when we were out in the field, so I was terrified to sleep alone. They weren’t too many females there, so I slept with the guys, LOL (I mean in their tent; none of them ever bothered me).
I don’t recall them ever being referred to as Mutts.
justplainjason,
She may have been an atheist (good for her), but I was referring to the logic of the powerful: I am powerful because I deserve to be powerful, and the fact of my power is proof that I deserve it.
Um, Joe, I have concluded that you know nothing whatsoever about Ayn Rand.
I do share your interest in evolutionary psychology though. It’s not the only lens through which I view human behavior, but I think it does provide a useful way of analyzing things.